The original Free move ocassioned an awful lot of frothing at the mouth from Free’s competitors and French politicians, who shamelessly attacked Iliad, Free’s parent, as reckless and selfish, even. The prevailing wisdom in France was that LTE could be marketed as a top-end service with a higher price-tag - as long as the networks stuck together. Then came the bombshell - it was almost as if Iliad had broken ranks in some way. A cartel? In France? Surely not.
"As Iliad builds out its mobile network, the announcement of the operator seems to be a risky and audacious bet," according to French ministers, Arnaud Montebourgv and Fleur Pellerin, according to Reuters.
"A low-cost strategy inevitably leads to under-investment in infrastructure, poorer service, and the destruction of jobs."
And I thought low cost strategy lead to lower prices.
This week Bouygues seemed to agree with Free. It too will now get audacious and make its LTE services available to customers without a price hike. As long as they have a compatible phone they will be upgraded for free and won’t have to sign a minimum term contract, just like Free, which is offering LTE, without any contract, at €19.99 per month.
Email Newsletters
Stay up to date with the latest industry developments: sign up to receive TelecomTV's top news and videos plus exclusive subscriber-only content direct to your inbox – including our daily news briefing and weekly wrap.
